Final ATCs for Janis' Birthday {And Then. . .Chocolate}

All good celebrations must come to an end, and so here we are, the last week for Janis' Birthday Celebration.  For this last challenge, Janis chose the theme "And Then. . .Chocolate" - yummy little party we've had!

What are ATC's? ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards.  There are no requirements to make them {unless you are participating in a swap or, in this case, Janis' fourth and last, theme And Then. . . Chocolate} EXCEPT they must be 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", the same size as a standard playing card or trading card.

Here are all the links for where you can still enter, but be quick! It's a good thing you can make an ATC in no time! {ends March 3, 2018}

Be sure to enter Janis' Blog Badge giveaway HERE!!!

WEEK 1 Theme - "All Those Cats!!"  You can still enter HERE

WEEK 2 Theme - "And The Chickens." You can still enter HERE

WEEK 3 Theme - "Adorable Teapot Collection"  You can still enter HERE

WEEK 4 (FINAL) Theme - "And Then.....Chocolate!"  Enter HERE

I've called my ATCs "Chocolate 1" and "Chocolate 2" and since I am really under the gun here, I'm going to be quick & just tell you what I used to make them.

Chocolate ATC #1

Heavy Weight White Card cut into ATC Size

Background made from Oxide Ink {scrap}

Sentiment from Riley & Co., Funny Bones, #RWD-564 Six Million Dollars

Tiny Money {stash}

Brown Card for Sentiment

Black Detail Embossing Powder, Hero Arts, PW-119

Embossing Ink

Shrink Plastic

Sharpie Markers

Gold Sparkle Gel Pen

The best part of this ATC was making the little candy bars out of Shrink Plastic. You can't really read them, but the candy bars say Hershey, Bite Me, YUM and Candy. I thought for SURE I had something with chocolate on it and I literally searched my entire stash {I did find the paper I used on Chocolate #2, as well as some other cool stuff I pulled out}, but I have nothing regarding chocolate except that sentiment.  Oh, well.  On to #2.

Chocolate ATC #2

Heavy Weight White Card cut into ATC Size

Image cut from Collage Sheet {out of business}

Words punched from a VERY old paper from SU!

Two Scalloped Oval Punches from My Family Treasure {out of business}

Beautiful Background Paper {stash}

I love this background paper and I have a small bit left, so you'll be seeing the end of it very soon.  I got it, along with the collage sheet, from a kit club I used to belong to that has since sold their business {about 9 years ago!}.  So this is a sort of vintage chocolate ATC.

That's it kids.  You only have about 24 hours to join in the fun, but I do hope you find some time - at the very least go and check out everyone's creations.  You can see each week by clicking on the above links.  And you can still join each week; but the whole shebang ends 11:55 pm on March 3, 2018.  Thanks for stopping by and checking out my ATCs - I appreciate your visit! Christi

I am entering my And Then... Chocolate ATCs in the following challenges:
Janis' Birthday Celebration 
Word Art Wednesday - #325, Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Crafting with Friends - #62, Anything Goes

A Pendant. . .well, a Keychain for Mom

This is my very first post as a Design Team Member for Globecraft & Piccolo.  I am so excited to be a part of this dynamic team! I hope you will enjoy my tutorial and please be sure to stop by the G&P blog daily to feast your eyes on more of the fabulous creations the Design Team has in store!

Let me tell you that I am not the most coordinated person, in fact, I am really clumsy.  It has gotten worse since I had my back surgery (almost 2 years ago) as my equilibrium is still trying to adjust to my “new” back – I often walk into walls, trip over my own two feet and other fun party tricks! I have always been clumsy and only recently have started to trust myself with sharp objects and other dangerous items.  I tell you this because it will make sense later on in the post.  Read on. 

My mom is my biggest fan – how could she not be? – and I love making her gifts and cards.  Unfortunately, my mom is legally blind due to glaucoma, but she does have some sight, depending on the time of day, the weather (sunny or cloudy) and how tired her eyes are.  When I saw these acrylic blanks and the adorable chipboard shapes from Globecraft & Piccolo, I knew Mom would love a pendant. 

The Items I Used:

• Oval Acrylic Craft Charm 
• Fine Flower & Vines Flourish Accents 
• Tiny Stars, Hearts, Flowers & Swirls (I used one heart) 
• Glasstique Gloss Finishing Glaze 
• Mardi Gras Embossing Enamel (I had already embossed the tiny heart) 
• Sharpie Marker in Green
• LuminArte Radiant Rain in Rich Cobalt
• Small Paint Brush
• Mrs. Grossman's Alphabet Stickers, black with clear background
• Blue Plastic Flower Gem
• Piece of Purple Shimmer Cardstock for backing
• Keychain (which is not listed in the store yet, but will be!)

The Fine Flower & Vines Flourishes naked :)

First thing I did was figure out my layout.  I knew I wanted the pendant to say Mom, to have flowers & hearts and be vibrant enough so she could see it.  I had colored the flower with Distress Markers first, but then I was worried that they’d run and I’d be left with a bare flower once they had contact with the Glasstique, so I recolored with a green Sharpie for the stem of the flower and LuminArte Rich Cobalt for the actual flowers.  Since LuminArte is also water soluble I knew there’d be some running of the color, but I wanted to give it a try and I felt a halo effect would almost enhance the pendant.  I colored the flower & stem quite a few times, letting it dry thoroughly in between coloring.

The beginning of the layout

Now I had to dig through my immense stash of letter stickers.  I confess, letters and fonts are another crafty addiction of mine and I had quite a bit of stickers to choose from.  And of course, the last bunch I looked at had the perfect black letters on a clear backing from Mrs. Grossman.  I stuck those on the acrylic base and then fooled with the flower and the little heart (that I had previously embossed with Mardi Gras Embossing Enamel when I was using the enamel on a card I made).  Once I was happy with the placement, I glued everything down.  Let that dry overnight, just to be sure.  I also had a hell of a time getting the blue covers off the acrylic, which was nothing new, and in hindsight, I should have left the back cover on the pendant until I was done.  But nooooo, I had to take all the covers off - my mistake!

The last step was to cover the entire design with Glasstique.  I hadn’t worked with this top coat yet, but I have worked with similar products in the past.  I bit the bullet and slowly squeezed the Glasstique in the middle of the pendant and let it flow naturally over the front.  Beautiful.  I left the pendant alone for about 8 hours.  When I went to check on it, I noticed that some of the Glasstique had flowed over the sides and went under the acrylic piece, (see why I should of left the back on?) and in my terror that I would have Glasstique stuck to the back I picked the pendant up to clean off the back before it had dried completely.  Well, in doing that I also cause a ripple and a fingerprint in the front, right were the “o” in Mom was. And then I dropped it (see, this is the clumsy part) but thankfully no more damage was done and I was able to pick the cat hairs off the pendent.  OK – not to worry – I let the piece dry completely and then I figured I’d be able to fix it somehow. 

My fix was a fiasco.  I thought if I dabbed just a bit of the Glasstique where the ripple and finger print were it would magically meld itself into the already dry coating and would be fixed.  Nope.  So now, I had a blob over the ripple and fingerprint – the good news being I couldn’t see the previous mistakes, just the blob now. 

The arrow is pointing to the blob of a mistake - I didn't take a pic of my fingerprint LOL

 I wrestled with just throwing the whole thing out and trying again, but I hate to waste products (as evidenced by my overflowing stash of scraps and doo dads) so I went to plan B – after I thought of plan B.  I have quite a collection of plastic gems so I picked through the ones I felt would work with what I’d already done and humbly asked my G&P Design Teammates which “fix” looked best.  That narrowed it down to 2 possible solutions, so I chose to use a blue plastic flower gem, which I glued right onto the Glasstique with a tiny dab of E6000 glue.   And then I put the cardstock paper on the back and that also helped a bit to camouflage the blob.  Whew!  You can still see the blob in certain light, but I think it’s a save.  Mom may not have a new pendant anymore, but she has a fabulous keychain! 

The fabulous Manny holding the keychain

And the keychain - whew!

I already have my eye on what I am going to dive into next – Mom may get a pendent after all!  I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial ~ Fondly, Christi

If you’d like more information about Globecraft & Piccolo’s products, you can go to the main webpage HERE - you’ll even find some tutorial YouTube videos!